Houseki
by Adina Alexis
Summary: What if Kougyoku was never brought into the Kou palace because her mother was killed by slave traders, who then kidnapped her before she was found by her father the Emperor's men and after her escape from them Sinbad and crew took her with them and she grows up in Sindria?


**HOUSEKI**

 **Summary:**

 _What if Kougyoku was never brought into the Kou palace because her mother was killed by slave traders, who then kidnapped her before she was found by her father the Emperor's men and after her escape from them Sinbad and crew took her with them and she grows up in Sindria?_

.-.-.

 _It was now or neve_ r, Kougyoku told herself. The slave traders were all asleep, including the one who was supposed to be guarding her, who had been careless enough to leave the keys to the cage they had put her in right where she could reach them. She didn't really have a plan except to get the hell ( _Forgive me Mama who is in heaven, she apologised mentally, But I think this really calls for some of those bad words you like to say sometimes when you think I can't hear you_ ) out of there, away from these people, even if she would possibly die from it.

No way was she going to give in to these people who had murdered her mother in cold blood and took her as if she was a mere object that had no input, and not a person who wanted and would take none of this shit from them.

 _Remember this Kougyoku, my jewel_ , her mama always used to say to her. _No matter what others say or how they see you or treat you, the most important thing is that you know that_ no one _has the right to do_ anything _to you, especially if it's_ bad _. You are your own person. You are_ not _an object._

 _I am not an object_ , she repeated in her head. _They can't do this to me. So I'll escape from them._

And so she did, and made barely a sound when she dived headfirst into the dark murky waters of the ocean that night even though she had no idea how to swim.

 _Even though I'm dying_ , Kouygoku thought the next morning, as she struggled to stay afloat on top of the small piece of wood she had managed to sneak off along with her during the escape. _I'll never hate you, ocean. After all, I could only escape because of you. I don't know if I could have escaped if they used horsies instead…_

She was dehydrated, starving, her energy and consciousness depleting and losing her grip on this small piece of wood that was the only thing standing between her and her inevitable end at the bottom of the ocean.

As her fingers finally lost their grip and her eyes began to drift shut, she sank into the water, thinking, _Mama, I did the right thing, right? I didn't give in to those bad people. So can I go to Heaven now and see you?_

The last sight she saw was of a shadowy figure heading towards her, outlined by the sunlight piercing through the ocean before she closed her eyes for what she thought would be forever.

For surely it was the Grim Reaper from her mama's scarier bedtime stories who had come for her…

It had been your typical, average day out on the Seven Seas, the only thing that could be commented on was that the waters were strangely calmer than usual.

Bored that there was no one attacking them, be they pirates or sea creatures, Sinbad decided to equip his djinn Baal and leave the ship for a bit of time to himself.

Imagine his surprise when he sees something that shouldn't have been out there in the ocean. A little girl with uniquely dark pink hair, passed out partially on top of a small piece of wood.

He was about to call out to her when he saw her slip from the wood and sink underwater.

He didn't even think, just dove in and grabbed her before shooting back up out of the water. Fortunately she hadn't really entered the phase of drowning yet, and had coughed the water out of her mouth on her own without his prompting, although she still remained unconscious. He rubbed her back, hoping it would reassure her somehow.

 _She's cute_ , he thought. _And in really bad shape._ He could feel the inner wrath he normally reigned in deep inside him roaring, demanding him to find out who it was that could have done this to her.

Not now, he told himself sternly. Right now, there are more important things she needs.

He speeded his way through the sky back to the ship where his people were waiting for him.

 _Is this Heaven?_ Kougyoku thought as she slowly regained consciousness. Someone was holding her in their lap, she realised, and she could her people's voices all around her, chattering all at once. _…But why is it so noisy?_

"Look, look, she's waking up!" a girl's voice was shouting excitedly.

"Lower your voice, you're going to startle her!" a boy's voice said sternly.

"You two, give her some space," a man's calm voice said. It came from the person who was holding her.

She finally opened her eyes, blinking away the sunlight that poured into her eyes, to see the face of a very handsome man with purple hair and golden eyes looking down at her with a calm, reassuring look on his face.

"Hello little one," he greeted.

The blush overtook her without warning and she scrambled in panic from his arms and ran to the edge of the ship, as if she was about to throw herself overboard again, causing the group to bicker even more as whether to go towards her or not, though at the moment none of them did, probably as to not startle her further.

Now that she wasn't lying down on the floor of their ship and being surrounded by them, she could clearly see them all. The purple haired man who had held her of course, as well as eight other people surrounding him, of varying ages and as far as she could tell, diverse races because they all looked so different from each other. There were some people with looks she'd never seen before in her life, and she had always thought that at nine years of age and living with her mama at the the high-class brothel located at the Kou Empire's port meant that she had already seen all the kinds of people the world had to offer. But evidently that was not the case.

"Who-," she tried to say, but her voice was hoarse and could barely be heard. "Who are you people?" she managed to say. "Are you going to sell me too?"

The last line had been said in a whisper, and that quieted the bickering group down. The purple haired man, the one who had made her blush when she first saw him, stepped forwards towards her slowly. "No we're not," he reassured her. "I carried you out of the water, little one."

Just then Kougyoku recalled the shadowy figure she saw before she lost consciousness. "I thought you were the Grim Reaper," she said quietly.

At that confession, everyone on the deck blinked and then, looked at each other and started laughing. At first, Kougyoku felt hurt and offended before she realised that they were not laughing at her, but at _him._

"The Grim Reaper! Of all the things!" the brown skinned one couldn't stop laughing, drawing annoyed looks from the green haired girl next to him, who he kept bumping into during his fits of laughter.

"Sinbad the Grim Reaper, now that's a catchy one, Sin," the gigantic one guffawed as he slapped the man on the back, making him stagger a little.

Four of them remained mostly stoic though, although they might be smiling slightly and whatnot: the one who looked the most exotic what with his dragon like form, the one wearing something similar to a turban, the one with white hair and the one with red hair that was a different shade from hers.

The other girl who looked like she was the youngest and closest to her in age went to her excitedly, grasping her hands unabashedly. Kougyoku was too shocked to pull away, especially because the girl was so happy and bright and enthusiastic that she felt bad if she did decide to pull away. "Sin's not the Grim Reaper silly!" she said. "He's our hero!"

"Hero?" she asked, confused.

The blonde nodded. "He saved all of us. He saved you too just now."

She looked at her so called saviour as if she wasn't sure what to think. Sinbad couldn't blame her - she hadn't been conscious when he had rescued her after all and when she woke up she had been bombarded by all these weird strangers.

"I'm Sinbad," he introduced himself. "You can call me Sin. What's your name, little one?"

 _Your true name is special, my jewel,_ her mama told her. She never told her exactly _why_ it was special though. _Don't carelessly give it away to anyone. Instead, tell them that your name is -_

"Houseki," she said. It had been her mother's pet name for her, the name she used when they were within earshot of anyone else.

"Houseki?" Sinbad repeated. "Jewel, huh? That's a pretty name."

She was still rather cautious when he held out his hand to her. "Welcome to Sindria, Houseki."

.-.-.

It had been eight years since she had first been picked up by Sinbad and his crew - now more commonly known as his generals.

Two years ago she had decided that she was old enough to work and volunteered to work as a maid in the palace in order to somewhat repay the debt she felt she owed to Sinbad when he took her in. Of course he and the others protested at first because of the reasons she gave - she should never feel compelled to repay him back after all - but they gave in when she said it was because she wanted something to. After all, despite the sword training she received regularly from Sharrkan, she was in no way on the same level as any of them with their household vessels and Sinbad didn't want her to become one of his soldiers - he still saw her as that little girl he fished out of the ocean, after all.

He basically treated her as if she was a little sister, but at worst, at times he even acted as if he was her father.

She desired neither treatment from him, since he was the man she'd been in love with since she was a mere child. So she decided to isolate herself from his inner circle, to keep herself from being hurt by this helplessly unrequited love of hers. She also tried distancing herself because regardless of how kindly they've treated her all these years, and how she couldn't manage to find even one Sindrian citizen who she felt would mean her harm, she was still traumatised by the slave traders who had murdered her only family and kidnapped her, to the point that she'd rather blend in rather than stand out - and the inner circle of the Sindrian court was the very definition of standing out.

Although she was as enamoured with Sinbad as many other women were, she wasn't part of the group who would actually clamber all over him during festivals and such. Instead, she would only watch him from afar, and if by chance he saw her and asked her to come over and join in, she did join in but tried her best not to let on that she was also in love with him. He saw her as part of his big Sindrian family after all, and even though she desired more, if that was the extent of what he could feel for her, then she'd take what she could get.

She was content with being that strange maid who always kept her hair hidden for some reason and was really close to the members of Sindria's royal court, as she heard some people speak of her when they didn't realise that she'd been listening.

Because she remembered that it was because of her hair that the slave traders thought that she was 'valuable' and decided to kidnap her. And although she knew that she would be safe in Sindria - she didn't want to call attention to herself and so made sure to cover it with a scarf most of the time.

And then came that fateful day when Judar the magi came by Sindria to taunt Sinbad and he caught a glimpse of a lock of her hair that had escaped from her scarf…

"I can't believe it! I've finally found you!" the scantily dressed man floating in the air sounded so excited, but she didn't understand.

Finally found her? Does that mean he's been looking for her? But what for?

 _He must have mistaken me for someone else_ , she thought. _What could he possibly want from me? I'm no one! Mama was only a courtesan, and I'm her daughter born from an unknown brothel customer - so what could anyone want with_ me?

"I think you've mistaken me for someone else," she insisted. She tried to leave, but he floated in front of her and blocked her path, shaking his finger and tsking at her.

Without warning, he took her scarf from her head, revealing her dark pink hair as her long tresses fell loose from its bun, flowing freely down her back.

"You're the one who's not aware of who you really are," he said. "Let me show you _exactly_ who you are… _Ren Kougyoku_."

Sinbad, in full Baal djinn equip, had come to the scene too late. By the time he did, what greeted him was the sight of a newly summoned dungeon right next to Sindria, its doors sealed shut and no Houseki in sight, only Judar floating in the air smirking at him.

At the sight of him, the wrath that Sinbad normally kept at bay inside of him was starting to uncoil itself and writhe around like snakes.

"Houseki's just a normal girl!" he was almost shouting at him. "What're you trying to prove, throwing her in there when she doesn't even stand a chance?!"

"Except she isn't a normal girl. She's a king vessel candidate," Judar stated smugly.

"And what proof do you even have of that?" He so wanted to punch his face until it could no longer form that expression, with his inner wrath egging him on.

The infuriating dark-haired man smirked. "You'll see."

Sinbad decided that he had to calm himself down and reign in his inner wrath, so he took deep breaths and decided to ponder on as to why the magi was so confident that he was right, that he hadn't been mistaken in picking Houseki as a king vessel candidate.

 _The other king vessel users Judar had chosen as candidates for the High King were all royals from the Kou Empire_ , he realised. _Which could only mean that…_

Judar saw the Sindirian king's normally tanned skin pale at the realisation and grinned evilly. "It finally hit you, huh? Well I guess you can be excused if you've never seen the colour of her hair before."

But he _had_ seen her hair before, when he had first met her by rescuing her from drifting in the middle of the ocean, before she started covering it up more often than not. How could he have not put two and two together sooner, especially since she was definitely not in anyway a Fannalis, the only other people he knew who were famed for their red hair?

"Ten years ago," Judar began in a taunting tone. "The Emperor set out a decree to find a courtesan he had bedded outside the palace, who had secretly given birth to a daughter. The mother was found dead, apparently killed but the girl was missing. We feared she was also dead."

He grinned. "But it seems like she's alive and well after all."

Sinbad glared at him. "If you're wrong and she -" He couldn't even manage to say the word. His little Houseki, dead. He might have rescued her from a watery fate, but she had basically rescued herself from her kidnappers before then.

This however was a different situation altogether. He'd been in those dungeons more than anyone else, and he knew how dangerous they were.

And now, one of his enemies had just thrown her into one. Ultimately, he had failed her.

 _I'll kill you_ , he thought. He managed to refrain himself from saying the words out loud because he didn't want to scare his people who were gathered at the scene, but Judar knew the words he meant to say.

"You're welcome to," he sneered. "Then you'll just fall even more into depravity - and how sad will the old hag be when she realises it was her fault that you did?"

 _Old hag?_ Sinbad thought, twitching. He was, regardless of the situation, really sensitive about age after all.

As if reading his mind, Judar shrugged, "What, don't you think she looks like one with that scarf always covering her hair?" He held up said scarf and the sight was enraging the Sindrian king even further because he recognised that it was the scarf he gave her for her latest birthday, and it was a scarf he knew she really treasured and wore often. "Good thing she's not going to wear it anymore, isn't she?"

"You know that the only reason you can't enter that dungeon is because she's still alive in there," he continued because Sinbad was too angry to trust himself to say anything. "The entrance will only open again once she's dead. Aren't you glad, then?"

He kept quiet because otherwise, he was afraid he was going to give into his wrath, and that was not a state he wanted his people to see him in. He ignored the other man and instead looked at the dungeon with its many whirlpools surrounding it.

 _Please be alright, Houseki._

In the deepest part of the dungeon, Kougyoku was the furthest thing from being alright. She knew that the place she had been thrown into was a dungeon, and that it housed a djinn much like the multiple ones Sinbad possessed, but what did her conquering this djinn have anything to do with finding out who she really was? And how did that man - that magi - even know her name? Her _full name_ , the name her mama had only told her once, the only hint she had of who her father was.

"REN KOUGYOKU," a loud voice suddenly echoed throughout the cave. "YOU HAVE DONE WELL TO HAVE COME THIS FAR."

Was that the voice of this dungeon's djinn…? Kougyoku couldn't even feel that surprised anymore, what with all the obstacles she had just overcome just to get to this point.

As the huge dragon like creature emerged from seemingly nowhere and looked down at her, she tightly gripped the hilt of the sword which Judar had somehow conjured out of nowhere and thrown at her before throwing her in here, thinking, _I'm definitely going to smack that magi once I get out of here._

It had been almost a full day since she'd been in there and Sinbad was really tempted to just expel Judar from Sindria by force before the magi decided he was bored with waiting and started attacking the rest of his people.

But then the most amazing thing happened. The dungeon shone with light that blinded them, and Sinbad and Judar knew what that meant.

 _Houseki - she - she conquered it?!_ Sinbad thought in disbelief, while Judar just smirked victoriously. He had never chosen wrongly before, after all.

When the light finally died down, the building was gone and there was only Kougyoku at the bottom of the what used to be the building's base, looking slightly worse for wear, but most importantly, alive.

Sinbad flew down towards her and she barely managed to say his name when he tackled her in a tight hug, as if he never wanted to let her go again.

But then he did let her go and inspected her for injuries. When he couldn't find anything physical, he finally asked, "Are you alright, Houseki?"

And the expression on her face was one he'd never seen before. She looked radiant, and for the first time ever since he had first seen her and thought her to be cute, he now realised that she was still that, but that she had also blossomed into a beautiful young lady. When he last saw her this morning she had been his little Houseki, but just in the span of a day after being in that dungeon she seemed to have matured in front of his very eyes.

"I'm fine, Sinbad-sama, I promise," she reassured him when Judar decided to join them, with a familiar-looking red haired young man in tow.

"Old hag!" Judar called. He was grinning from ear to ear. "I knew you could do it."

She wanted to keep her promise to herself to smack that grin right off his face, but she was afraid that doing so was going to spark off Sinbad, who she noticed became very tense the moment the magi came near them. So she refrained herself, thinking, _Next time, magi-chan. Next time._

"Sister," the young man who looked so similar to her said. He must be one of her…brothers. She remembered from gossips she heard through the grapevine that of the three Ren brothers, the youngest looked so feminine that he could pass off as a girl. It was amazing how much they looked alike. She wondered if it was because they got their hair and eyes from their father, as she knew that in colouring she looked nothing at all like her mother. "Come with us."

"And if I refuse?" she said, stepping in front of Sinbad to confront them herself.

"And what makes you think we can't force you to come with us?" Ren Kouha snorted. Sinbad tensed. After all, it was just the two of them while he had himself and his generals at his disposal, but you never knew what trick Judar had up his sleeve.

Kougyoku smiled. It was a small smile, but it was there and it was confident. A far cry from the normally bashful and somewhat timid smiles she gave, Sinbad thought. "Then you should have taken me before I was thrown into the dungeon."

Kouha narrowed his eyes. "You just came out of there," he reminded her. "Don't get cocky."

An undaunted smile remained on her face. He started feeling uneasy.

"Judar, what is the element of the dungeon she conquered?

The magi just smirked at him. "Can't you guess?"

The dungeon had emerged as a building with whirlpools surrounding it.

Sindria was located in the middle of the seven seas.

Ah, shit.

It was never a good idea to tangle with a water based king vessel when you were on an island. They had practically unlimited magoi to draw from.

"Don't think this is over!" Kouha said even as he started retreating, dragging Judar with him. "We'll come back for you, and next time, you _will_ come with us."

Judar let himself be dragged backwards, waving at them all the way until they disappeared from sight, drawing cheers from the Sindrian people who had been watching them all this while.

After his generals had taken it upon themselves to thoroughly check on her (they had been preoccupied with making sure that Judar had been alone and not with an army and had protected the populace just in case)- Pisti especially being the hardest to convince that she was perfectly fine, as the two remained close to each other ever since the day that met; while Sharrkan was a very proud teacher, preening that a student of his had conquered a dungeon - Sinbad was finally left alone with her in her room, where she was delegated to bed rest regardless of her protests that she didn't need it.

"Why did you hide your hair all this time, Houseki?" he asked. He never understood her reason for it, as he resisted the urge to run his fingers through a lock of her hair. She had very beautiful hair after all, and it was also evident that she took care of it very well too. Pisti did tell him once that she wished her hair could be like Houseki's, that she could spend hours just pampering it in the privacy of her room, away from prying eyes.

"Although my hair was what got me kidnapped in the first place…it was also a source of pride for my mother. So I kept it long rather than shearing it."

 _So it hadn't been because she was trying to hide that she was related to Kou imperial royalty. Although that was probably why her mother instilled it in her to hide it from when she was a kid._

"What was the full name your mother gave you?" he finally asked the question he actually wanted her to answer the most.

"…Ren Kougyoku," she finally confessed.

Following the tradition of how the current royal Kou imperial siblings were named. But to have names and to wear hair the way royalty did was taboo. Her courtesan mother had been smart to call her daughter by a second name that wasn't obvious as the first, 'Houseki' (jewel).

"I'm sorry I lied about my name to you all these years, Sinbad-sama," Kougyoku apologised. "My mama - she told me told keep it a secret."

He shook his head. "There is nothing you have to apologise for, Houseki. I'm the one who should apologise for not stopping Judar before he could trap you in there."

"Are you mad at me, Sinbad-sama?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

He was genuinely confused. "Of course not, why would I be?"

"I - I always thought you wanted to conquer all the djinns you could get, so I thought -," she stopped, but they both knew the silent words that hung in the air. _That you'd be disappointed for not getting one more._

He ruffled her hair until it got all mussed up and she batted him off with a protest. After all, all he ever did before was pat her on the scarfed head, so she was not used to such rough treatment to her poor hair.

"Houseki," he said gently. "I want you to know that I'm proud that you conquered that dungeon." Then he grinned. "And I look forward to teaching you how to master your djinn."

And for the first time Kougyoku realised that since she was now a dungeon conqueror and had also been the illegitimate offspring of an emperor all along, she was actually on more or less equal footing with him.

She returned his grin with a huge one of her own.

.-.-.

The Kou Empire made good on their promise to come back for her. This time though, they brought out the _big guns_ , for the one who came for her was _Ren Kouen_ , the crown prince of the empire himself and…her eldest brother.

"I refuse to come with you," she said before he could say anything when he asked for an audience with her. She had been left alone with him in the garden where they had a measure of privacy, although guards from both Sindria and the empire kept watch over them from the balconies overlooking it, including Sinbad. They were however, well out of earshot.

"What would I be in the palace, as the child of a lowly courtesan who was previously thought to be dead, having never been brought up as royalty, suddenly appearing out of nowhere to claim my heritage?" she continued when the man didn't say anything, though he kept his eyes focused on her.

"The dungeon that magi threw me into is of Isolation and Sorrow. I will not become the embodiment of that. I would rather choose the kind of isolation I can live with than the kind the palace will give me," she said firmly.

"And I will _not_ be used as a pawn in the royal games you play," she added as a finality.

Kouen guffawed, a reaction that all who were observing them did not expect at all. "Alright then. I will not force you. It is refreshing to have a sister with such an outspoken mind. But remember Kougyoku, that you are always welcome to the Kou Empire should you change your mind."

He took out some things from his sleeve. One was a small golden crown, similar to the one he wore on his head, while the other was the most exquisite golden hair pin Kougyoku had ever seen in her life.

"I bestow upon you this symbol of your royal status," he said formally, offering the items to her.

"This is too much!" she protested. "I can't accept these!"

"No," Kouen said firmly. "This is exactly what should have been given to you at birth, sister."

Before she could utter another word, he turned her around so that her back was towards him and took off her scarf without even asking her if he could. Honestly, as she told herself to just stay still and not react badly, did men from the Kou Empire have something against scarves or something?

He started fiddling with her hair, shaping it to his satisfaction and she could feel him putting some of it through the crown, before he slit the hair pin into place.

"You can use that as your metal vessel," he suggested, motioning to the hairpin. "Your djinn might prefer that to the sword you're using right now."

Kougyoku was at a lost for words. He was really going to just give her these things and not force her to come with him? She hadn't expected that at all. She had practically readied herself for at least a battle to fight for her right to choose what she wanted.

Kouen seemed to have read her mind. "Regardless of your origins, we are _family_ Kougyoku," he said simply. "Families look out for each other. I understand why you have pledged your allegiance to Sindria since this was where you grew up more _happily_ \- but I hope that one day, if we need it, that you'll come to the Kou Empire's aid as well, sister."

With that, he left her to her thoughts as she fiddled with her hair and realised that it was going to be difficult for her to hide her hair from now on with this crown and hairpin on her head - unless she decided that she no longer had a need to do so.

.-.-.

"Kougyoku-hime -," Ka Koubun, the attendant who had been assigned to her by her brother Kouen-niisama began one day when they sparred.

"Don't call me that," she interrupted him, stopping their spar. "I rejected that title."

"But Kouen-sama, the crown prince, has extended an open invitation to you and even gave you a Kou imperial crown," he pointed out. "He has acknowledged you as one of Kou's imperial princesses, regardless of what you think, hime."

She could tell that the man was an ambitious one, but his heart was in the right place. He didn't force her, but he was trying his best to teach her how it was that princesses in the empire acted, some of which she found exasperating and others she found were interesting enough that she wished to learn about.

She sighed. "Alright Ka Koubun," she acquiesced. "You may call me that if you so wish."

She could see the so called ambitious planning expression of his back on his face and smiled at the thought that at least, even though he was planning to use her to rise to the top, he wasn't very good at hiding it, unlike a certain someone she could name.

.-.-.

There were good things and bad things that came with her new identity as a dungeon conqueror and a Kou royal princess. One of the disadvantages, the one she hated the most, was that she was now torn between Sindria, where she grew up half her life in and had happier memories of, and the Kou Empire, where she came from and where she knew she had family related to her by blood ready to welcome her into the family anytime.

If she chose to go to the Kou Empire, she would be used as a pawn by Sindria. If she decided to fully side with Sindria, the Kou Empire would do nothing to stop getting her back not only because she was a dungeon conqueror chosen by their magi but also because of her royal lineage.

The holder of Vinea could be the worse enemy or best defender of any sea nation, depending on which side they were on. In order to attack the nation, the navy was necessary. And having the ability to control water could result in instant life…or death.

She would be unbeatable if she were to partake in a sea battle, and both nations knew that - so she was crucial to them both. Sindria could use her to defend their kingdom against any naval attack while the Kou Empire could use her to attack and subdue any sea-bound nation with ease, including Sindria.

But _both_ places were too important to her for her to pick only one. They were both home, and both had people she cared about.

So she decided to remain neutral.

Now that she had the power, now that she possessed Vinea and had more of a choice regarding how to live her life, she decided to make the ocean her home.

Vinea of course agreed with her plan since she was the djinn of Isolation and Sorrow, and preferred isolation over the ever crowded small island kingdom of Sindria, which continued to grow in population every time Sinbad saw it fit to bring refugees back with him during his many excursions.

Kougyoku of course didn't force Ka Koubun to come with her, but he still wanted to remain as close as possible to the princess he was put in charge of, so he requested for a hut to be built for him right on the shores of Sindria.

It was comical to see such an ambitious man be resorted to what were probably the most squalor living quarters he'd ever had to live in, but she saw that regardless, he was very serious in his duties to her and would holler for her all day until he was hoarse while paddling his tiny boat all by his lonesome all over the sea aimlessly in his efforts to find her, if she didn't emerge from underwater and see him at least once a day.

 _If nothing else_ , she thought. _He sure is persistent._

For his loyalty towards her, she decided to ask him if he would do her the honour of becoming her sole household member. He had been surprised by that, but also touched, although that had been quickly replaced by what she could tell were some more ambitious and no doubt dubious planning on his part.

She shook her head and wondered if she should burst his bubble and tell him that the most he could do would be to heal others with his metal vessel, and not any other kind of ability he could use for his grand plans of rising to the top (and possibly world domination, but she didn't think he was interested in that - unless he planned on having her dominate the world somehow).

In the end, she left him cackling aloud to his grand but delusional plans of possible world domination. _Whatever makes him happy_ , she thought.

.-.-.

Kougyoku might be in love with Sinbad, but she wasn't so naive as to not be aware of the darkness that was also within him, unlike many of his other admirers. She had overheard the conversation he had with Jaafar regarding how his djinn Zepar's spells worked before Judar had appeared and thus was afraid that even if she wasn't asked directly by Sinbad to spy on the Kou if she chose to go with them, he would cast the spell on her and force her to go and spy for him. That possibility had been one of the deciding factors as to why she decided to go for neither country in the end.

Regardless of how uneasy she felt about his attitude of 'I will do anything if it is for the sake of my kingdom, no matter how low it is,' it didn't change the fact that she had been saved by him and Sindria would always remain her home at heart, even if she no longer stayed there.

So when she heard that Sindria was in trouble, she didn't hesitate to rush over and rescue the kingdom with a single execution of her newly learned extreme magic. She was going to run off again but Sinbad stopped her and insisted she stay for dinner at least.

"No, wait! Houseki. Please stay, even if only for dinner," he coaxed her.

She didn't want to be caught in his snare, but…maybe just for a while.

Now that she was no longer a maid in the palace, she felt out of sorts as a guest who was conflicted between wanting to leave and wanting to stay. She could tell Ka Koubun was happy though, to be staying in the palace again. She felt sorry for him and decided it wouldn't hurt to stay a while.

For the moment she had dismissed him though, as she wanted to be alone in the central flower garden that had been her favourite place to be at when there was no one else in the vicinity, where she absent-mindedly stroked the flowers. This was where she liked to go to when she felt lost, where she could ponder in peace.

That peace was shattered by a foot that stepped onto the flower she had been just been stroking.

"Hey you! Pay attention to where you put your feet!" she said, outraged.

"Eh?! Ah, sorry!" the owner of the foot apologised hurriedly.

"Ah, you're-," She recognised him as her junior, another one of Sharrkan's students, the blonde prince of the now defunct Balbadd kingdom, Alibaba Saluja.

She turned away from him. "I heard you had your hands full in Zagan."

"Ah, yes."

 _Now that I think about it…if Kouen-niisama didn't give me a choice, I would've ended up marrying this man_ , she realised. He had sent her a letter asking her if she could consider the arranged marriage, for the sake of relations between the Empire and Balbadd. Thankfully, aside from Kouen giving her the freedom to choose, in the end it was all for naught anyway since Balbadd was no longer a kingdom.

"Here," Alibaba said, making her turn. He offered her a crown made of the very flowers they were surrounded by.

"Sorry I stomped all over your flowers," he said. "Here, as an apology."

Her eyes widened and her face became blank. She was utterly fascinated by it. "…How did you do this?" she asked.

"Eh?" Alibaba said, surprised by the question. "This thing? Um…You take this, and pass it through the ring, and…" he demonstrated.

"Wow, you're so skilful!" she praised, making his ahoge stand up in pride.

And then he guided her on how to weave the flowers into a crown, and unknown to the both of them at the time, that was the start of their unexpected friendship.

She stayed longer than she thought she'd let herself because of Alibaba's presence. She had just successfully finished making a flower crown all on her own and she wanted to show it off to him. She found him practicing his swordplay and headed towards him without calling out first.

He almost injured her with an agitated back swing of his sword, if she hadn't managed to duck in time.

"Hey! That's really dangerous, you know!" she admonished him.

"Oh, sorry!" Alibaba apologised. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I came to give you something…behold!" She proudly held the finished flower crown. "What do you think?" she said, obviously proud of her work.

"Whoa! You did such a great job!" the blonde praised. "I mean, you were all thumbs before!" He remembered her first try at it. The end product hadn't even come close to looking like a crown.

"Shut up!" She blushed out of embarrassment. "Were you in the middle of training with your weapon?" she asked.

"Uh, yes."

"Is that so? Perfect timing. I've been getting a bit rusty myself…," She pulled out her hairpin from her crown and djinn weapon equipped it. "Duel with me as a fellow metal user!"

"Whaat?!" he had raised his voice in shock. "No way! I can't fight a princess…"

She didn't really consider herself as a princess, but she had no control over people who saw her as one. "What harm is there in some light sparring?"

In a flash, she had fully djinn equipped Vinea. "Come on, equip your djinn as well!"

"No, I can't-" Alibaba tried to explain, but another man's voice interrupted him.

"Well, this is quite the sight!" Sinbad said as he went up the staircase to were the two of them were.

"Sinbad-sama!" Kougyoku practically squeaked. "Oh no! I don't want you to see me in such shameful clothing!"

And just as quickly as she had fully equipped her djinn, she unequipped it just as fast.

"What's this? Are you already finished?" he said, sounding disappointed. "And here I thought I could volunteer my services as a Djinn Equip sparring partner." He turned to Alibaba. "Is this your first time doing this, Alibaba?" Sinbad asked. "Let me demonstrate. Here and now."

"Huh?" was Alibaba's only contribution to the conversation.

"But m-my skills still pale in comparison to yours, Sinbad-sama!" Kougyoku insisted. "I won't be much of a sparring partner…"

"Nonsense," he said. "You saved Sindria, Houseki. I'd really like to see how much you've improved since we last sparred."

She blushed and agreed, always eager to please him especially when he had just praised her. They both fully equipped their djinns and to Alibaba's shock, shot through the dome they'd been under.

 _There goes some more unnecessary damage charges Jaafar's going to get mad about,_ she thought.

"I know you're still holding back your full power," Sinbad called out to her after they parried a few blows back and forth. "Please show me your Extreme Magic, Houseki."

Had Sinbad gone insane?! "But I can't unleash it here!" she tried to reason with him. After all, his palace was right underneath them.

He had a cocky expression on his face, one he would never have shown her before. She was equally thrilled and equally uncomfortable with having it directed at her.

"Are you saying I won't be able to block it?" he said arrogantly.

Part of her pride as a fellow djinn conqueror insisted that she take his confidence down a notch, so she gave in and used her Extreme Magic, summoning a wall of seawater much larger than the one she had previously summoned when she had saved Sindria.

But Sinbad, true to his word - was able to dispel it easily enough using Focalor's spell.

"Is that all you have in you, Houseki?" Sinbad was egging her on. She narrowed her eyes at him. Why was he insisting on prolonging this battle? They had scared their audience enough and demonstrated enough of Djinn Weapon equipping to Alibaba too, hadn't they?

She couldn't name the reason, but she felt uncomfortable all of a sudden and was no longer in the mood to spar with him. When she saw the glint of the ring where she knew Zepar dwelled, she could suddenly understand why. "I think we should stop for today," she said stiffly. "Milord."

The look on Sinbad's face was of surprise, that she could guess what his true intentions for requesting a spar were, and faced with the confirmation that what she suspected but hoped would never be true of him actually really was true, Kougyoku quickly descended and unequipped her djinn, excusing herself and locking herself in her room. There, she cried in private at the realisation that the man who had taken her in when she was all alone in the world would really resort to using her as a pawn for the sake of his kingdom.

She felt her heart break.

Kougyoku would have left the very next day, if not for her bumping into Alibaba in the flower garden once again. She made another flower crown as they talked.

"Are you alright, Houseki-san?" Alibaba asked, worried. "You stopped the spar all of a sudden yesterday and retired to your room for the rest of the day."

"He…was my first love," Kougyoku confessed all of a sudden.

"Huh?" Alibaba was understandably confused. What did this have to do with his question?

"Deep down, I knew he'd never take me seriously in that way," she continued, regardless of her listener's confusion. "I mean, he sees me as a little sister, or a daughter, even. But yesterday…" She clenched the flower crown she'd just made, tears dripping onto her hands. "Yesterday he…" She couldn't manage to admit it, that _he'd_ treated her as if she was an _object,_ that he was _no better_ in that regard than the slave traders who had killer her mother and kidnapped her. "I finally realised how much of a _fool_ I've been," she said in the end.

Alibaba panicked. He always felt uncomfortable and dreaded seeing a girl's tears, and this particular case was even worse because there was no one else in the vicinity to comfort her, so it was all up to _him_ to do so, and he hadn't had much practice at comforting heartbroken, crying girls.

He rummaged through his clothes hurriedly until he managed to find what he'd been looking for. Wordlessly, he handed over the handkerchief to her.

"Thanks," she said, accepting it with the best smile she could muster at the moment. "I'll get over it." _Although not anytime soon,_ she admitted silently.

"Can I ask you something?" he treaded carefully.

"What is it?"

"Why have you decided to stay in the ocean?" He was curious to know, since he found Sindria to be such an ideal place to live in. And she had even grown up here too, as his teacher Sharrkan had told him of her, his former student, the one he was most proud of. So why…?

"I don't wish to be tied down anywhere now that I have found somewhere else I am comfortable to be," Kougyoku sugarcoated her words rather than telling him the very painful truth.

"But isn't that lonely?"

"It is," she admitted. If not for Ka Koubun's presence, she probably would've succumbed to Vinea's Isolation and Sorrow long ago. "But…I found a purpose for myself. I have things I want to protect. So it doesn't matter how lonely it'll get."

 _A purpose…for myself?_ Alibaba thought, her words striking a chord within him.

Then he paid attention to her again, as she started talking about her past - how her mother was a lowly courtesan who had chosen not to reveal her birth to the emperor, but then she had been killed anyway by slave traders who then kidnapped her with the intention of selling her - how she escaped and almost drowned if not for Sinbad rescuing her.

"Don't misunderstand, Sindria is a lovely place to grow up in," she hastened to reassure him. "But for some reason I never felt like I truly belonged. So when Judar-chan _(he had graduated from magi-chan in her head ever since she knew of the other magi_ ) threw me in that dungeon and I found out I was actually Kou royalty all along - I finally understood why. But now I feel like I don't belong in either Sindria _or_ Kou."

"Actually, my mother was born on the streets too," Alibaba confessed as he explained his backstory. It sounded so familiar to her, except he did grew up in the palace of his own kingdom, where had been treated with disdain by his fully royal blooded siblings. She wondered if she would've faced the same treatment had her mother not manage to hide her successfully from imperial eyes and she had been raised in the imperial palace from birth.

"Then you and I are the same!" she concluded excitedly.

"Yes, we're the same," he agreed.

"In that case…I know I said earlier that it doesn't matter how lonely I'll get but…I don't mind…having a friend," she continued, face turned away from him.

"Huh?" Alibaba had a total blank look of incomprehension on his face.

"Everyone here in the Sindria court is more like my family than my friends," she confessed. "So I've never felt what it's like to have an actual _friend_ before. But I'm sure that _we_ could be friends! Am I wrong?"

Alibaba rubbed the back of his head. He felt somewhat awkward. He never had to formally announce that he had become friends with someone before. Friendship usually just happened. He actually thought of her as a friend before this and evidently she did too, but it seemed like she also wanted it to be official somehow. He wasn't sure how to go about it, so he just bowed his head and said, "Then I-I'm pleased to make your acquaintance!"

Kougyoku smacked him on the head, making him call yelp in pain.

"Hey!" she complained. "You wouldn't be so formal with a 'friend,' right?!"

"Oh!" Alibaba seemed to finally realise what she was getting at. "In that case…" He held out his hand. "Let's be friends, Houseki!"

"You can call me Kougyoku!" she decided, beaming. The only person who had regularly called her by that name had been her mother, and despite a decade of going by the endearment her mother had called her, in truth she missed being called by her true name, although she remembered both her mother's fondness and pride of it as well as a mixture of fear and sadness.

"Ok then," Alibaba agreed. "Kougyoku!"

And they shook on it, the rukh swirling around them the colour of happiness and friendship.

.-.-.

"Kougyoku…even though the war against the Al-Thamen has ended, she still prefers residing in the ocean, doesn't she?" Kouen went straight to the reason as to why he had requested for an audience with him. "As a condition of removing the influences of the Kou Empire from Balbadd, you, Alibaba Saluja, will convince Kougyoku to come live with you in Balbadd, where she can retain her neutral stance between Sindria and the empire."

"Buh?" came Alibaba's really eloquent answer. After all, exactly how was one supposed to react to such a sudden and somewhat unreasonable request?

"You're her friend, aren't you?" the redhaired man reasoned. "Then it shouldn't be so difficult."

I shouldn't still have to answer to the whims of the Kou imperial family, Alibaba thought. The war was over after all, and the nations had decided that it was best for them all to live in peace now that their mutual enemy had been dealt with, rather than continuing to fight each other and repeating the mistakes made by the residents of their ancestors in Alma Torran.

Worse comes to worse, he could always ask for the help of the Seven Seas Alliance. Even though Sinbad was still recovering from his complete fall into depravity, surely the other leaders would agree to help him?

But then he noticed the look on the older man's face and realised something. Kouen was asking this not as a political leader, but as an older brother, he realised. He was just using Balbadd as an excuse - the man knew how to negotiate terms, but he had no idea how to ask for a favour.

Alibaba resisted the urge to snort at the man. If nothing else, his concern for his siblings was admirable, even if his favour-asking-ability wasn't. "You'll remove the Kou Empire's influences from Balbadd first," he negotiated back. "And then I'll bring Kougyoku to Balbadd. But not because you told me to, but because I already thought of asking her beforehand whether she'd want to or not."

Kouen gave him a long, hard look. He wondered if the blonde would really be successful in doing that - although it'd be good for Kougyoku if he did. She had isolated herself for far too long, in his opinion.

If he can manage it, then maybe I should consider arranging a marriage between the two, he thought seriously as he finally nodded in agreement.

It would be fun to gain such an easy younger brother-in-law to tease and make fun of, he thought just as seriously, Alibaba completely oblivious to his mental matchmaking.

.-.-.

Notes:

So. I actually started this fic with the intention of pairing Kougyoku with Sinbad, but in the end the story seemed to work better if she ended up with Alibaba, so ~ -_-' Since I wanted to write a fic for the two of them anyway, I just went with it ~

If I somehow want to make Sinbad and Kougyoku come together in this fic, I need to mention that since Sinbad rescued Kougyoku when he was about 21 and she was 9, he treats her like a daughter (ala Solomon to Sheba haha) or a little sister, thus she feels that her love for him will never be reciprocated.

But can you just imagine Sinbad as Kougyoku's father and the generals plus the Ren family as her siblings? Man. Alibaba is so doomed. He has the worst in-laws in the world to deal with.

But, if I'm still tempted to have Kougyoku be with Sinbad, I'll probably write a different chapter on how that could be. Yes I know, I like this plot too much to not use it for my two different OTPs -_-'


End file.
